WASHINGTON -- The U.S. House of Representatives today defeated the
Hefley Amendment by a vote of 252 - 176. The amendment to the House
Commerce, Justice, State Appropriations bill, which would have
overturned President Clinton's May 28th executive order banning
workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation, is a serious
setback to the Far Right's recent anti-gay legislative crusade.

"This vote reflected the values of our nation," President Clinton
said, after the amendment was defeated. "The American people believe
in fairness, not discrimination, and the Hefley amendment would have
legitimized government sponsored discrimination against its own
citizens based on their sexual orientation.

"It has always been the practice of this Administration to
prohibit employment discrimination in the federal civilian workforce
based on sexual orientation," Clinton added. "Most federal agencies
and departments have taken actions to memorialize that policy. The
Executive Order does no more than make that policy uniform across the
federal government. It does not authorize affirmative action, or
preferences, or special rights for anyone."

The vote signals that members of Congress may fear a backlash from
voters who overwhelmingly believe discrimination against gay
Americans is wrong, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

"Today's vote was historic. For the first time in the history of
this country, the U.S. House of Representatives voted that
discrimination against gay and lesbian Americans is wrong," said HRC
executive director Elizabeth Birch."Religious political groups and
their Congressional allies overreached, and in the process, delivered
our community a strong statement from Congress that they agree with
most Americans and support protecting gay Americans from unfair
discrimination."

"Republicans, Democrats, and independents in Congress did not want
to add the official stamp of approval for anti-gay workplace
discrimination in federal agencies. Most Americans adamantly oppose
the Hefley Amendment and its goal of legalizing discrimination," said
HRC political director Winnie Stachelberg. Birch and Stachelberg
praised Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) for their
leadership in defeating this amendment.

The amendment, sponsored by Rep. Joel Hefley (R-CO), was
out-of-step with public opinion. A new poll released by HRC and
conducted by the polling firm Penn, Schoen, and Berland shows 64
percent of Americans said they are against Congress overturning the
executive order, compared to only 28 percent who support overturning
the discrimination ban.

A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released last week reaffirms
the HRC findings with 72 percent of the American public supporting
President Clinton's Executive Order against anti-gay bias in federal
agencies. An April, 1997 poll conducted for the Human Rights Campaign
by the Tarrance Group, shows that 80 percent of the American public
says that homosexuals should have equal rights in terms of job
opportunities. Before this executive order was issued, many federal
agencies had their own separate policies banning discrimination based
on sexual orientation.

This often led to confusion amongst government workers as to
whether or not they were protected. Contrary to the claims of the GOP
leadership, this executive order helps clarify the law for government
workers by bringing uniformity to existing anti-discrimination
policies across the federal government. The order adds sexual
orientation to the list of protected categories for which
discrimination is already prohibited, i.e., race, color, religion,
sex, national origin, disability and age.

In issuing the order, Clinton noted that this policy does not add
any new enforcement rights, such as the ability of a civilian federal
worker to appeal an anti-gay job discrimination case before the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission

"In what has been one of the most hostile climates against our
community in recent memory, we are relieved that a basic sense of
fairness and decency is finally prevailing," said NGLTF executive
director Kerry Lobel. "This amendment was nothing but another tool to
attack gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Americans. It is our
hope that defeat of the amendment will mark a return to addressing
the truly important issues facing our country and a cessation of the
spineless scapegoating that has become so popular of late."